I disagreed -- sometimes strongly -- with how Chris was writing the characters. And it seemed no matter what I drew, he would find ways to write something else. (See: "Incestuous lesbian kiss" et al)

Then, one day, it dawned on me that how I thought the characters should be written really didn't matter, since it was what Chris was writing that was seeing print. If I didn't like how Chris wrote the characters, that meant I didn't like the characters!

Eventually I reached a point of "maximum saturation", and I left. At the time, it could not really have played out any other way.

••

X-FACTOR was too bound into then-current X-MEN continuity. The book I wanted, from before I even joined Marvel, was what eventually saw life as HIDDEN YEARS.

(I had pitched HIDDEN YEARS at the time of the X-FACTOR launch, and was told "Another book called 'X-MEN' would be too confusing!" Wish I'd gotten THAT in writing!)

X-Factor was strange.... I collected it pretty much from the start because I liked the characters and I really liked the idea of the original team back together again and it was a chance to join a book from the beginning (I also really like Jackson Guice's art). So I stuck with it through thick and thin, but never really enjoyed it that much...

***

It seemed like X-Factor was really getting good (with the 5 original X-Men actually getting along and working as a team and Scott and Jean happy together and a supporting cast forming and no more of that mutant-hunter garbage) when Marvel decided to stick the original five back into the main X-Men titles and turn X-Factor into a silly comedy written by Peter David. I'd have been happy with X-Factor continuing as the originals and kept as far seperate from Uncanny and the other X-books as possible.  

I enjoyed the book at the beginning, especially the Walt and Weezie run but it lost it's sparkle pretty fast with me after they came aboard. My main problems with X-Factor:

1. De-furring Beast and then making him furry again. I actually thought it was cool when he reverted to his original look and kind of wanted him to stay that way.

2. Archangel...nuff said.

3. The creation of Apocalypse and having him be all-powerful. Not necessarily his creation but the fact that his backstory helped give us the mess of Cable, Bishop, and others of that ilk.

4. Mutant Massacre. It started the crossovers that would ultimately take the fun of having the original X-Men back together because every so often they'd have to crossover with the X-Men.

I guess the creation of X-Factor in a way made Marvel realize that the original X-Men would eventually need to return to the fold and that anyone that was ever a mutant would eventually have to be a member. If Marvel had that philosophy in the 70's, Beast would never have been an Avenger and Iceman and Angel wouldn't have had the opportunity given to them in the Champions. Granted the Champions wasn't a success and Beast, Angel, and Iceman's Defenders bombed but at least they were somewhere besides the X-Men.

I remember reading a letter in the New Mutants when I was a kid and the writer hated the New Mutants. He suggested that Xavier put the originals plus Havok and Polaris back in the X-Men (Jean was still dead at that point) and move the current X-Men team to the New Mutants. I'm a New Mutants fan but that suggestion still intrigues me all these years later.